Monday (February 17) noticed the beginning of the second annual Jeopardy! Invitational Match, which options 27 gamers representing six completely different a long time of the long-running sport present.
Within the first sport of the match, two trendy Jeopardy! icons returned to the Alex Trebek Stage alongside an old-school legend from the Nineteen Seventies period. That’s proper, Doug Molitor, a novelist from Altadena, California, first appeared on The All-New Jeopardy, hosted by Artwork Fleming in 1978 and 1979, earlier than occurring to win 4 instances on the Alex Trebek model and reaching the semifinals of the third Match of Champions.
Molitor confronted off in opposition to Hannah Wilson, an 8-time champion in Season 39 in 2023 and 2024 TOC quarterfinalist, and Matt Amodio, a 38-time champion in 2021 and 2022 TOC semifinalist. Amodio additionally positioned third within the first-ever Jeopardy! Masters match and sixth place in final 12 months’s second version of the Masters spinoff.
Amodio got here into Monday’s sport as the favourite and lived as much as the billing. In actual fact, he was feeling so assured that he advised host Ken Jennings he wished to be the “sport present villain,” a nod to his frenemy James Holzhauer, the self-declared unhealthy boy of Jeopardy!.
Whereas Wilson led the way in which after the primary spherical with $9,600, Amodio adopted intently behind with $6,800, whereas Molitor trailed with $800. The Double Jeopardy spherical noticed a turnaround, as Amodio doubled up by way of the final Every day Double, giving him the lead with $30,400 over Wilson’s $22,400 heading into Closing Jeopardy. Molitor, sadly, wound up within the pink after a failed Every day Double, ending the sport with -$3,200.
Jennings learn out the Closing Jeopardy clue: “Nonetheless round as we speak, this strep an infection that causes a rash has horrible results in “Little Girls” & the “Little Home on the Prairie” books.”
Each Amodio and Wilson have been appropriate with “What’s Scarlet Fever?” and together with his wager of $15,000, Amodio received the episode with $45,400, incomes his spot within the JIT! semifinals.
“Nice sport, congrats, Matt,” Jennings advised Amodio.
“Hannah made Matt work for that win. Poor Doug,” wrote one Reddit commenter after the episode.
“Welcome again, Amodio Rodeo!!!” stated one other.
“Matt calling himself a jeopardy villain made me snort. he’s something however,” added one fan.
One other wrote, “Congrats to Matt! I really feel unhealthy for Doug, I hate seeing individuals not make it to Closing Jeopardy. Hannah undoubtedly put up fairly the competitors. I believe in a unique matchup, Hannah might’ve been a semifinalist. There’s at all times a future JIT!”
“Crushed for Hannah, particularly since she performed so nicely in match gameplay once more, however there’s actually no contesting that Matt is without doubt one of the greatest to ever play the sport and deserved this win,” stated one fan. “I really feel fairly unhealthy for Doug although, since he definitely has a novel legacy on the present. He might have gotten the hardest draw within the match, all issues thought of.”
The JIT sees 27 acquainted faces competing throughout 9 quarterfinal video games, three semifinals, and a multiple-game finals sequence. The primary Jeopardy! alum to win two video games wins the entire competitors, the $150,000 prize, and a spot within the 2025 Jeopardy! Masters.
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